Right Thinking from the Left Coast

Tag: Detention of American hikers intruding into Iran

Those 2 gadabout world travelers from Berkeley that got a bit too close to the Iran border (next time, bring your Garmin, you schmuck) and got swept up for being American spies finally got released last week. No doubt they had travel brouchers from Islamabad, Chechnya, Mogadishu, and Beruit in their cargo pants as they left, more exciting places in the world to see. Everyone should be familiar with their ordeal the last two years, and when finally released had this to say, the soup bone quote comes from Shane at the end:

That’s right, you turd, your moral equivalence polemic aside, America is just like Iran in jailing those critical of it’s government.

I can’t really blame Stockholm Syndrome since they were critical of Iran as well, maybe he was just calorie deprived and could not think of anything to say.

Others are not too thrilled about the half cocked ramblings of this Berkeley grad (with honors, in Peace and Conflict Studies) either:

In the last year I have written several blog posts about the American hikers imprisoned in Iran, hoping to help keep attention focused on getting them freed. Like every American I was delighted to see them out, finally, yesterday.

But like many Americans, I was not delighted by the statement made immediately by one of the two, Shane Bauer. After thanking the Sultan of Oman for helping get them out, he said this:

Two years in prison is too long and we sincerely hope for the freedom of other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran.

Who exactly are the “political prisoners” in America?

Can we have some names? Who exactly are the “unjustly imprisoned people” in America, and how precisely does Mr. Bauer know them to be “unjustly imprisoned” rather than convicted according to due process of law?

Who knows, this might have been one of the conditions of release by the Iranians, say something utterly stupid to condemn your country, the most utterly idiotic and unprovable, the better.

Nobody has said that our judicial system is perfect, but we are not a theocracy, we do not hang homosexuals and stone adulterers, we don’t behead those that make fun or show disrespect for a deity, and we allow dissent, both within the press and the public. We are transparent in our dealings with law breakers, we have a Constitution that affords the accused certain privileges unheard of in Iran. In short, the rights, privileges and liberties our system affords our citizens is light years away and separate from those given by that 8th century country to it’s citizens.

Despite that fact that free speech allows him to be stupid, it also allows me to express my opinion that Shane needs to get his ass kicked.